I started university in Manchester, but I dropped out after six weeks. The course wasn't right for me, I didn't feel at home, and when the halls I was living in burned down, I knew that was my ticket out! I went away to Africa, but I knew I wanted to carry on studying, so I had my King's interview over the phone while I was still out there.

Perhaps as a result, I didn't attend freshers' week, and because University of London campuses are all over the city my friends were all geographers – I got into a close clique of girls and we are all still friends now. It was a really good course, though the geographers themselves were a bit odd. They were all really competitive and would hide journals or rip out the pages so that nobody else could read them. There was definitely no sense that we were all in it together.

London was a shock financially. Rents meant that you went where you could afford, which inevitably meant paying for the tube and then dragging yourself through all the crowds. But I got to six weeks and thought, "Phew, I'm staying." I was very distracted by London – I really enjoyed being there and being someone who lived in the city. I wasn't very diligent and didn't have the concept of the nine to five, so I did as little as I could get away with.

Top Tip

Work out how much you're paying per lecture and then make sure put your back into it!

Ellie Harrison achieved a 2.1 in geography. She studied at King's College from 1997-2000